Welcome to Roses & Thorns. All books receive honest reviews, regardless of our sources. We are no longer accepting submissions. While the blog will remain live, I cannot continue reviewing books. My own writing is suffering from keeping up with two blogs. I will post my last review on May 29, 2017. Thank you Rose and Donna for your help, authors for the (mostly) great reading, and readers for following us.

Roses & Thorns

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Blurb:

Valeria Luiselli is an evening cyclist; a literary tourist in Venice,
searching for Joseph Brodsky’s tomb; an excavator of her own artifacts,
unpacking from a move. In essays that are as companionable as they are
ambitious, she uses the city to exercise a roving, meandering intelligence, seeking
out the questions embedded in our human landscapes.

Review by Rose Thornton:

This is a very subtle, yet powerful, book. Luiselli is an
excellent writer who is able to incite deep thinking while using few words. One
example is when she is describing her bare windows in an dilapidated apartment:
“The fact that you see yourself mirrored in the windows at night and almost
never see the outside world is most probably an architectural strategy for
creating an illusion of privacy in a city where the view is a constant
invitation to peek into other lives.” She has an intriguing philosophical view
of the details right around her in daily life, and she grounds her views within
the boundaries of good common sense. Sidewalks
is definitely a good read for the anyone who enjoys a challenge to mediocrity.

While
still in high school, Demi gave birth to a baby girl and, feeling she had no
other options, put her up for adoption. Having moved on with her life—gotten
married and having had two other children—16 years later, Demi Glenn suddenly
cannot get her firstborn daughter out of her mind. After hiring two private
detectives but getting no solid information to go on, Demi turns to the one man
who will not come back empty-handed, who will not give up until he finds the
answers—David Alexander, a married father of two daughters—the father of the
baby she had given up so long ago who had no idea he had sired a child as a
teen. Together, will they be able to find their daughter without their families
being torn apart or will fate intervene, upsetting their lives in a way they'd
never dreamed in the pursuit of finding the daughter they can no longer live
without?

Review by Rochelle Weber:

Demi
Glenn has recurring nightmares that her firstborn child, born while she was a
teen and put up for adoption, is in danger. She sees someone sinister chasing
her daughter down a beach. She hires two different private detectives, neither
of whom can find the child. Desperate, she turns to the one PI she knows will
not stop until he finds the girl—David Alexander—her high school sweetheart,
and the baby’s father. Both are married with children and neither has told
their families about the baby. How could David tell his family? Demi never told
him about the baby.

Their
child, Renee, has never felt quite comfortable with her parents. They have
different interests, and as an only child, she’s lonely. She’s often wondered
if she could be adopted, but her mother swears she’s not. Still, that vague
discomfort is always there. But, she’s looking forward to the future. Her best
friend/boyfriend is leaving for college, and her parents are allowing her to go
live with her Aunt in Alberta to be close to him. She can’t wait to start this
next adventure in her life.

I
never figured out when, where or how Renee was in danger aside from her
adoptive parents finding out her birth parents were looking for her and trying
to keep her from finding out she was adopted or from meeting them. I spent much
of If Only waiting for Renee to be in
danger, but it never really happened, and I felt a bit cheated.

There
is a mystery here with elements of the paranormal as Demi, David, and Renee all
reach out to each other in their dreams. And there’s a bit of a chase scene at
the end, but again—I never felt Renee was in danger of anything but being
prevented from meeting Demi and David. There is danger, but it’s not directed
toward Renee. Just don’t look for the scene that seems to keep recurring in
Demi’s dreams. You won’t find it. If you read If Only
without the expectation of anyone chasing Renee down a beach or anywhere else,
you’ll enjoy it.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

A Hundred Ways to Happiness makes positive
psychology, the newest branch of psychology, available to the general public
through bite-sized chunks of inspiration and instruction. 100 chapters guide
the everyman through strategies incorporating their body, mind, relationships,
habits and outlook to maximize well-being and happiness. Dr Tim Sharp, a
leading clinical psychologist and media personality, takes away the scientific
stigma of self-help texts and makes happiness available to everyone,
particularly those short on time who can simply dip into the book when they
need a lift.

Review:

100 Ways toHappiness is a so-so self-help book, and
I would not recommend it. Dr. Sharp, whom the author info in the book itself
states has a masters degree, apparently uses the title of ‘doctor’ and possibly
with every right, but unbeknownst to me. I always check out the author first,
and this particular detail was my first indication this book was not what I
expected it to be, whether this was a result of misinformation or not.

Sharp is somewhat repetitive in his
attempt to encourage various paths to happiness. Although there was little new
in it for me, it did re-enforce my established thoughts on how important it is
to act positively, de-clutter one’s life, sort problems, deny denial, etc. The
one appealing idea in it for me was to create a “happy hour” everyday for myself.
This I like in theory. However, as much as I like this idea, I don’t believe
one can create happiness on demand for an hour. If one is able to do this, then
there is no reason one cannot transition it into a happy day, happy life.
Happiness is a way of being that requires more a mind-set of selection than
creation. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Most folks are about as happy as they
make up their minds to be.” This is the way I believe happiness works for the
most part on a daily basis, although certainly at times tragic events skew all
attempts for happiness. This is not necessarily a negative component of life as
one might question if it is even possible to appreciate happiness to the
fullest extent if emotions counter to happiness are never experienced.

Monday, March 23, 2015

Private
eye Peter Bragg’s relentless search for a missing insurance investigator
unearths shocking secrets involving embezzled money, the disappearance of a
cop, art stolen from a San Francisco gallery, and a serial killer obsessed with
the expressions on his victim’s faces when they realize they are going to die.
Bragg connects the dots, creating a chilling portrait of impending death…and it
could be his own.

Review by Rochelle Weber:

I
love the Bay Area, and the Golden Gate Bridge on the cover of The Missing and the Dead drew me in. The plot kept me
reading.

Janet
Lind is the kind of anchor woman who, according to Don Henley, can “tell you
about a plane crash with a gleam in her eye.” The only reason Peter Bragg
agrees to take her case is that he owes her boss a favor. It seems her brother
Jerry, an insurance investigator, has disappeared, and their uncle has died
leaving them over a million dollars. If Jerry’s dead and he died before the uncle,
Janet gets all of the inheritance. If he died after the uncle, she has to split
the money with Jerry’s wife, Marcie, who she clearly thinks is trash. Bragg’s
opinion of Marcie Lind is higher than that, and keeps him on the case, which
becomes convoluted and dangerous, indeed.

I
enjoy Brash Books’ reprints of classic noir novels. It’s fun to read books that
take place before people had laptops and cell phones, although some of the
action takes place in areas where a person probably couldn’t get a signal
anyway. The dialog was natural, the characters very well-drawn, and Mr. Lind
did a great job of keeping me guessing who the villain was. I truly had no idea
until he revealed the killer. I highly recommend The Missing
and the Dead.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Houston firefighter, Jeff Taylor is a fireman’s fireman. He’s not afraid of anything, and no situation is too dangerous to keep him on the sideline if lives are at stake.

Lisa Matheson runs a semi-successful ad agency that’s on the brink of falling apart. Her employees are incompetent and her schedule has become exhausting. When she takes on a client with a brilliant idea for a big conference, she thinks that maybe, finally this is her lucky break. However, the fire station wasn’t what she had in mind for finding conference speakers. When she falls for a handsome but shy firefighter, it’s possible that life might just be going her way for a change. The only problem is she can’t control Jeff and the death wish he seems to have…

Donna's review:

Both Jeff Taylor and Lisa Matheson have some serious issues
that have kept them from forming any sort of emotional attachments as adults. While
there are some action scenes of fires in this book, it is largely an emotional
read. Both Lisa and Jeff must come to terms with their past and their present
if they are to forge a happily ever after with each other. Stallings does a
great job building and peeling the layers away in slow increments so that the
story is driven towards the end.

The portrayal of a firefighter’s angst and the trauma their
family and loved ones endure for these men to follow their career is also well
down. I am ashamed to admit I had never really given these men a lot of
thought. They truly do put their lives on the line every day for the public.

I will say there were times the story drags a bit, and I
often thought it could have been said in fewer words. Stalling’s style is not particularly
unique, but her sentences for the most part flow and the story is read easily.
There are a few turns of phrases she occasionally uses that did cause me to scratch
my head and reread.

I also found the formatting a bit confusing. I read a kindle
edition, so I can’t speak for the paperback. There were times it was not clear that
the story was moving to a different point of view and it pulled me out.

Stallings writes Christian Fiction, so there is no premarital
sex in this one. The heat level is relatively low and confined to the feelings
of both characters and light kissing. However, it is taken for granted that
both main characters are already Christians. There is no conversion for anybody
in this book, and neither character had a particularly racy past.

An
enjoyable, heart breaking read from start to finish. (Yes, I cried at one point, maybe two.) The
plot is well done. The characters are believable. The pacing, except in a few
instances, is quick.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

These new poems are powerful, distinctive and as
always, full of lifting rhythms of love and remembering.

“You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

* * *

Out of the huts of history’s shame

I rise

Up from a past that’s rooted in pain

I rise

I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and Swelling I bear in the tide.”

--from
Still I Rise

Review:

One
of my favorite poets, Maya Angelou is life unleashed in her book of poetry, And Still I Rise. She touches her reader
with the struggles of the heart and soul in her poems of descriptive
oppression. One of my best-loved poems of Angelou is her Phenomenal Woman:

“Pretty
women wonder where my secret lies.

I’m
not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size

But
when I start to tell them,

They
think I’m telling lies.

I
say,

It’s
in the reach of my arms,

The
span of my hips,

The
stride of my step,

The
curl of my lips.

I’m
a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal
woman,

That’s
me.

--First
verse, Phenomal Woman

I
recommend this book to all poetry lovers. Angelou has an intriguing way of
expressing the many sides of herself to her reader through a pleasant and
powerful tempo.